Wednesday, December 4, 2013

COUNCIL PRESIDENT WOODEN'S READING CHALLENGE

PRESS RELEASE FROM COUNCIL PRESIDENT WOODEN:


Council President Wooden announces winner of the 

2013 Summer Reading Challenge,
“Council President for the Day”

 

HARTFORD – Council President Shawn T. Wooden today announced that Naiya McGlamery is the winner of the Council President’s 2013 Summer Reading Challenge. McGlamery, a resident of Regent Street, is a third grader at CREC’s Reggio Magnet School of the Arts. She will serve as Hartford’s “Council President for a Day” on December 9th. 

In June, Council President Wooden, in partnership with Mi Casa Family and Education Center and Rosen Publishing, gave away 7,600 books to rising second and third grade students in Hartford.  As part of this initiative, announced at Jumoke Academy Honors at Milner on the last day of school, Wooden challenged the students to write a paragraph and draw a picture about why summer reading is important to them.  

“I launched this initiative to draw attention to Hartford high illiteracy rate and to promote early reading as a critical tool to address this issue.  Unfortunately, the educational achievement gap starts very early in our children’s lives. ” 

In addition to serving as “Council President for a Day”, McGlamery has won a Kindle eReader and tickets to the Connecticut Science Center. In addition to McGlamery, Mrs. Hickey’s entire class at Kinsella Elementary School will also be recognized for their high level of participation in the challenge.  Each participating student in the class will receive a ticket to the Connecticut Science Center, which were generously donated by the Connecticut Science Center.  

“I am grateful for the many educators, parents and students that supported this effort,” said Wooden. “Young people like Naiya are proof that Hartford’s best days are ahead, and that early literacy will be a huge part of our success.” 

As Council President for a Day, McGlamery will spend the afternoon of December 4th at City Hall, learning about the roles and responsibilities of the Council President. She will join Council President Wooden during his regular leadership meeting with Mayor Segarra, Majority Leader Alex Aponte and Minority Leader Larry Deutsch.  Additionally, she will work with Council President Wooden to prepare for the evening’s Council meeting, which she will ceremoniously open at 7:00pm. She and the Kinsella students will be recognized at the Council meeting that evening.